Art in Bloom – Museum of Fine Arts

I can’t remember the last time, if ever, that I was at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, so when 2 friends invited me to go along with them to the Art in Bloom exhibit at the MFA I was thrilled to go. Art in Bloom is an exhibit in which 45 New-England area floral designers and garden clubs are tasked with interpreting an assigned piece of artwork at the MFA with a floral arrangement.

Leslie (aka Ronnie) is an MFA member and was able to also secure Patrice and me tickets at the local library. I paid about $5. We drove into the city, and to our surprise, there was no traffic on a Saturday morning, but another week at this same time the 30 minute drive took over an hour. Boston traffic used to be predictable, but since Covid, there is no rhyme nor reason to the traffic patterns. This exhibit is not a “timed” exhibit so there was no time constraint. We parked at the MFA garage which was just around the corner from the main entrance for a reasonable rate.

We took our time following the roadmap of arrangements provided by the museum and joined tours along the way. The tours were free and brought us to the arrangements in a certain area, describing the painting/art piece and the interpretive efforts of the floral arrangement. The tours tended to get very crowded, so when they did we just went off on our own.

We didn’t just observe the pieces for the show. We also enjoyed the other fine works of art that are displayed at the MFA. As always, are the impressionists – Monet and Renoir – are among my favorites, followed by Van Gogh. Renoir’s “Dance at Bougival” reminds me of my brother, Michael, and his wife. I sent him a picture and told him so. The MFA collections of these artists is wonderful, though some of their other famous works are at various museums.

We had a nice lunch at the MFA’s New American Café which is offers full-service dining. It is located on the 1^st level of the museum and has an open, atrium feeling with views of some pretty sculptures. Our waiter, Jeremy, couldn’t have taken better care of us. We had one of their signature cocktails, a melon spritzers that was great. Our salads were good, as was our peach cobbler with ice cream that we had for dessert.

Leslie wanted to see another exhibit at the MFA, “Dress Up”. This was in a small corner of the MFA and had displays of various jewelry and clothing. The effort was to show how jewelry can be fashion, and clothing can be fashionable with jewels. Many of the dresses were adorned with sequence, artwork and beads. There were shoes and other artistic clothing creations. I didn’t take any pictures worth sharing in this section.

I loved the story of the bird cage ring worn by Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet laureate invited to recite at a presidential inauguration. She stated that she wore this ring given to her by Oprah to pay homage to Maya Angelou’s poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” My picture didn’t come out very well, so I borrowed this image from the internet calling it and Aviary Classic Ring from Of Rare Origin, NY.

All in all, it was a great, cultural afternoon. This is really something I don’t do enough, so it is my goal to try to make more or an effort to visit some of our city’s gems. Thank you to Leslie and Patrice for inviting me along.

Regards,

Patti